In corporate terms gouging is the practice of predatorily "selling" items to consumers which have intentionally inbuilt, artificial "Due Dates". Known as "planned obsolescence", this can take the form of deliberately shoddy manufacturing, or as in most modern cases, denying consumer access to that items energy source. The intent and result of planned obsolescence is the creation of "limited ownership".

If for example cars were sold with gas caps welded shut, the car would be "Junk" long before the engine died. Would a consumer truly "own" that car?

Electronics manufacturers currently scam consumers in the same way by preventing access to thebattery. When the battery dies, (long before the electronic components have even begun to fail), consumers are expected to:

1. throw the item away

2. purchase wildly inflated "battery servicing"- strategically priced JUST below the cost of an entirely new player. This gouge is coercive encouragement to:

3. purchase the product AGAIN.

In this way, gouging's a deliberate attempt to steal far more than fair share through trickery, scheming, coercion and negative option marketing. Think you only paid 400 dollars for your player? Nope - you'll pay 400 dollars TIMES the number of times you re-purchase it. Enjoy your $1200 mp3 player! So sorry you can't give the old one to your kid brother -- stupidbattery's completely fucking dead.

It's a dishonest and unethical way to to make money and Apple Corporation is at the forefront of this particular swindle, followed by everyone else "on the take".

I purchased this Ipod a year ago and the battery's just about dead. How can I switch it out on my own like I used to? Shouldn't I have the RIGHT to replace it myself? - After all, I do own the damn thing, don't I?

WAIT JUST A MINUTE. Oh shit- they're gonna gouge me, aren't they? I should've seen this coming. I got tricked by their shiny advertisements into ignoring my own best interests.

A battery should cost 20 bucks - max...and where they're available for purchase, THEY DO.

Just checked Apples website - those assholes want to charge me 179 dollars, PLUS shipping, PLUS currency conversion, PLUS the time I'm without my mp3 player, PLUS the time it takes to put all the music back on the fucking thing. All that PLUS the aggravation I feel when getting screwed for no good reason by a large corporation which has a great deal more money than I have, which disrespects its customers, which has absolutely zero ethical backbone.